Candy Canes, Sour Drops and Jawbreakers
by IVIaedhros
Summary: Throughout his life, there were many that he watched over. Hitsugaya. Fong. Kuchiki. Though one never knew of the others, these cold individuals were together connected by the kindness of a sickly candy man. These are their stories.
1. Those Four

_Dedicated to the true heroes who have labored without regard for recognition or reward, reflecting Christ truly in their lives; written with the inspiration of __**Jaya Mitai's**__Afraid__** , Kilonji's**__Never Much at Goodbye__ and__ Tales of the Two, __**Tarame's **__Elegiac Memory__ and __**Lady Azar de Tameran's**__Before the Fall/Thunderstorms and Frozen Snow__ drabbleset . _

It was noted by several of the older members attending that the official memorial for Ukitake Jyuushiro, Seretei's second Captain-General and former captain of the 13th division, had the largest attendance in recorded history. It was only surpassed by the funeral of Hidekai Saitou, the fourth warlord of the Red Sun regime and the founder of Seretei. It was also noted that Saitou had left orders to bribe and/or threaten at least half the guests into attending, and that his mourners did not face annihilation in the form of hybrid hollows lead by traitor shinigami. Both records were broken the next week when, as mandated by Jyuushiro's will, there was a posthumous bash on the Kuchiki family grounds celebrating Jyuushiro's "Disease Free Day". Complimentary joke-inhalers/breath fresheners and homemade candies were given out to everyone attending while the Shiba clan's fireworks were accused of starting at least six fires. Despite the ongoing war against Aizen, almost half of Soul Society's breweries, wineries and restaurants were shut down in preparation for the massive fete organized by Jyuushiro's seven siblings and the administrative goddess that was Ise Nanao. Fifteen minutes after the official opening time and two minutes into Kotetsu Kiyone's obituary, there wasn't a dry eye on the audience, whether from joy, laughter or sorrow you couldn't tell.

That is, there were none, but eight…

Eight dry, unblinking eyes for four individuals whose lives Jyuushiro's kindness had deeply touched despite their personal tragedies and cold natures.

Hitsugaya Toushiro,

Soi Fong

Kuchiki Rukia and

Kuchiki Byakuya

These are the stories of their lives and how each, without knowing the other, came to know the white haired candy man.


	2. He was my Teacher

When Hitsugaya Toushirou first walked into the 10th's headquarters, a freakishly intelligent child who by all normal standards would still be under his parents' care, the person who greeted him in his empty office was not Matsumoto Rangiku, who had yet to transfer from the 11th, and neither was it any of his officers. It was the tall, white-haired man from his initiation ceremony who had the bizarre habit of randomly forcing candy into his arms and who called him "Sir" without a sneer in his voice.

* * *

Matsumoto, Toushiro very quickly discovered, had a charming wit and a spirit force that very few, man or woman, could equal. He also discovered just as quickly that she was almost as bad as Zaraki at paperwork and Zaraki sometimes had to ask Ikakku to help him spell. New to the captainancy and ignorant of the seemingly unnavigable maze of bureaucracy that was the Gotei 13, Toushirou nearly despaired of his life. He probably would have resigned himself to death and bitten Yamamoto in the balls if not for a minor miracle. That miracle came one miserable February morning when Toushiro woke up on his desk, eyes bloodshot and fingers cramped from a futile, ten hour battle against backlog, and noticed all of his paperwork had been done…even the SR-92.11D's. What's more, there was a notebook full of instructions on where to file what, contact information along with general good old fashion know-how on how to cheat the system. Toushirou's tears of joy almost ruined his new guide book before he noticed what was happening.

* * *

Captain Ukitake spent years trying to convince Hitsugaya about the joys of pearl diving. The young prodigy would always excuse himself from the rare outings despite Jyuushiro's repeated urgings. Jyuushiro was thrilled when, out of the blue, Hitsugaya agreed to go for an entire week of diving with him and his family. His enthusiasm might have been somewhat less had he realized it was only to be around his sister Kazumi.

* * *

Captain Ukitake would often invite the newly minted 10th division captain to a night of discussion and drink with himself, Captains Kyouraku and Sajin, and Vice-Captain Ise. These semi-weekly meetings soon blossomed into an intellectual round table that everyone seemed to frequent and served to prove to the other high ranking shinigami that not only were the reports of Hitsugaya's genius true, but that the diminutive captain could be pleasant and even hilarious company when he decided not to be so chilly…unfortunately, that proved to be rare event, much to Captain Ukitake's exasperation.

* * *

Toushirou never told him this, but he would sometimes purposefully look grumpier than usual around Jyuushiro just so he would get extra candy…not that he ate the candy himself, of course…he only used them to bribe Matsumoto and Yachiru….

* * *

Although Hitsugaya Toushirou obtained Hyourinmaru's bankai in record time, fully mastering Dai Guren Hyourin Maru was another thing entirely. Toushirou was repeatedly humiliated when his difficulty controlling the surprisingly bloodthirsty spirit caused him to lose several matches. One particularly nasty incident almost resulted in the death of several unranked soldiers and Toushirou locking himself in his office for a week. Rangiku was about ready to pull out her perfectly groomed hair when Ukitake Jyuushiro showed up out of the blue and cheerfully asked if he might spar with his fellow white-haired protégé. Although initially reluctant, several "chibi-chan" jokes convinced him that, yes, the best thing for him really _was_ to go out and beat the living daylights out of something. When they clashed over the sea in the 13th division, Toushirou's wild bankai surprised his opponent and blew a gaping, frost-bitten hole through his gut. Toushirou's panic was only surpassed by his surprise when Jyuushiro gasped in bloody laughter as the full power of Sougyo No Kotowari was released for the third time in nearly two millennia. "Now come, Hyourinamru, scream! Scream, rage and roar into the eye of the storm and know why you must learn to obey your master!" Centuries later, shinigami still recall with awe the day the sky rained frozen hail and lightning bolts while the wind shook with the fierce laughter of spirits.

* * *

Later on in life, Hitsugaya became famous throughout soul society for using his abilities to create exquisite ice sculptures which he handed out freely and often randomly. The creations ranged from a crystalline rose to an immense statue of children playing crack the whip that sits in a courtyard in the 67th district. Regardless of the size or number, each is a never-melting masterpiece of painstaking detail and sweeping creativity. When asked by his blushing 9th seat why he did this, he would just shrug and say that they were cheaper than candy.

* * *

After Toushiro finally caved in and agreed to go out "clubbing" with Rangiku following years of sexual harassment and failed blackmail, he soon realized he had a very big problem: he couldn't dance. He had no rhythm, no rhyme; no beat, no flow; no groove or whatever the hell else you called it. Fact was Hitsugaya Toushirou was whiter than cotton and he knew it. So it probably wasn't the brightest idea to turn to the only man in Soul Society whiter than him. Thankfully for Matsumoto's feet and the pride of pasty white boys everywhere, the old candy man had the hook up: his youngest brother Hayoto, who just happened to be in on everything new and hip. When the sour faced Toushirou casually broke it down to _Flo-Rida_ and Matsumoto choked on her vodka mojito, Hitsugaya knew he'd scored the big one.

* * *

Caught up in his never ending efforts towards perfection, Toushirou forgot what it meant to appreciate life's tiny pleasures. He thought it odd that Jyuushiro would randomly pause stare at something utterly ordinary before proclaim it beautiful, but slowly noticed that he, too, began noticing wonderful in everyday. He still thought the old man was weird though.

* * *

When his academy instructor asked him why he wanted to become a soul reaper, he said because he was told to. When Yamamoto asked him why he wanted to become a captain, he told him that he wanted to prove everyone who'd mocked him wrong. When the same instructor asked him why he would give up the honor of captain for thankless grind of teaching, Hitsugaya told him that someone else had once taken the time to help him.


	3. He was my Brother

The first time Soi Fong met Jyuushiro, Soi Fong was under Yoruichi's orders to steal his candy while he had just finished a rare bar crawl with Shunsui and was so sloshed he barely managed to drag himself into bed at four in the morning. One hour later, fully armed and clad in the garb of an assassin, Soi Fong walked into his unlocked house and began to systematically redistribute Jyuushiro's candy into a burlap sack. She had almost managed to grab the last of the chocolate mints from under his bed when the alcohol-besotted captain rolled off his bed and on to the diminutive thief. Jyuushiro later told neighbors that the resulting explosion and subsequent incineration of two rugs, a vase, three cubic feet of wall and his eyebrows was the fault of an experimental spell. Yoruichi spent the next several weeks screening her food for poison and making sure all of her buildings were fully equipped with the kido equivalent of a lightning rod.

* * *

Because Jyuushiro was Kisuke and Yoruichi's only cover in their elopement against the Shihouin's will, Soi Fong was frequently saddled with him. Deeply loyal and jealous of her heroine's attentions, Soi Fong balked when she first heard of the arrangements. She was quickly silenced when a smiling Jyuushiro arrived in traditional gee requesting that Soi Fong join him and his eldest sister Tsubaki for an unarmed spar. Further protest died when he offered her a bag of chocolate mints.

* * *

It was shortly after the second year, when the war stopped following anyone's plans, that Aizen began the assassinations. Sometimes it was a disgruntled soul from the Rukonagi that he manipulated, sometimes it was a mimic hollow, stealing the bodies of the slain to return and claim the living. After two near-successes, Soi Fong placed a 24-hour guard around the ailing Jyuushiro. Although disgruntled about the utter lack of privacy, he made the best of it by joking with his black clad guards whenever possible. On the rare occasions Soi Fong sat down with him for an unavoidable security brief, he would be sure to have tea and a small set of chocolates ready for her.

* * *

It is a well known fact that 2nd division intelligence knows basically everything in Seretei. It is a less well known fact that most of everything that 2nd knows, Jyuushiro knew. That's because he knew it first and 2nd got it from him. Since Soi Fong was Yoruichi's most trusted subordinate and messenger, she knew the third most out of everyone in Seretei. Because of this, Soi Fong is the second most feared individual in Seretei. Second, because unlike Yoruichi, she'll usually skip the gratuitous torture and just kill you. Kenpachi is only third because he considers most beings beneath his notice. Soi Fong doesn't care who you are.

* * *

Having lost her siblings due to the brutal nature of special ops and never having been close with her parents in the first place, Soi Fong envied the Ukitake family and their intimacy. Jyuushiro often invited her to gatherings with his family and, although she usually refused, Soi Fong treasured their time. It was with Tsubaki that she sparred, Kazumi and Shishio who taught her to dance the _Hasty Crane_ and it was Seijiro whom she mentored when he managed to make it into an unseated position in the 2nd Division as an analyst.

* * *

After Yoruichi disappeared, Soi Fong seemed to disappear as well. Two years later, 2nd Division Captain and Commander of the Keigun Brigade Shaolin Fong appeared in her place at a captain's meeting for the first time wearing a white haori and a cold and bitter shell of her former self. When Jyuushiro quietly asked her what had happened, she politely told him it was unimportant and that he should stop wasting his time and get back to business. Jyuushiro nodded and proceeded to politely ignore her order because he never wasted his time. He was supposed to die soon, after all, and he had to make sure he left enough room for tea with Shunsui.

* * *

It took Jyuushiro a while to realize that, while she often appeared to be ignoring what he said, she was only so distracted when they conducted their rare meetings in the 13th's gardens. When Jyuushiro left a bag of seeds on her desk instead of the usual chocolate mints, Soi Fong thought he meant for her to eat them. Thankfully, she read the note-_Poppies with hosta leaves, lavender, geraniums and roses blessed to grow quick and strong: sew into earth and water daily. Now Suzumebachi can enjoy flowers in his own home._

* * *

The Soul Reapers, no matter how colorful and emotive they might have been, were at their heart a military organization. Even the lowest seat had spent decades slaying unspeakable demons, seen good friends die or simply disappear. They were disciplined and experienced killers all, and few were more disciplined or a better killer than Soi Fong, the greatest assassin and counter-intelligence expert out of a _division_ of centuries old paranoid killers. Yet as she stood by as Jyuushiro's solitary guard while he quietly spilled tears following Sentaro's death, she found herself bursting into a long and bitter tirade: he is the commander of Shinigami, there can be no weakness, no room for attachment or sympathy when the ultimate responsibility of the uncounted dead ride on his frail shoulders. When Jyuushiro looked back up at her, eyes shining deathly white, she forgot to breathe.

"If you're to love anything, your heart will be broken. It will be soft, tender and open to being flayed by _disappointment_, _betrayal…_ and loss. If you want to make sure it stays intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. So go ahead and wrap it up carefully in your hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements, numb it in duty, euthanize it your work. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness…but in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable and useless."

Soi Fong stayed behind long after her temporary charge left without her, unprotected until the next shift; a complete lapse of duty on her part.

All she could do was cry.

* * *

It took him a century or so, but on a cold, dead night, hours into a captain's meeting discussing a raid on Hueco Mundo, Jyuushiro finally did it: he made Soi Fong laugh. And it wasn't just a giggle either. It was the gasping-for-breath, doubled-over-in-pain, oh-my-God-did-I-just-snort-in-front-of-everyone ?! kind of laugh. Sure it was probably (mostly) the fatigue and stress, but still…even Mayuri had admitted that his impression of a sexually-confused Urahara Kisuke had been "amusing".

* * *

Time slowed for shinigami and vaizard alike as the one they thought invincible was thrown down to the earth, his life force snuffed out like an ember ground into ash. The captains' formation staggered then broke as the espada and their subordinates charged through, no longer content with drawn out duels. _Step, parry, thrust, thrust, swing, thrust, parry, die._ Soi Fong has no time to think anything as first Komamura and then Oomaeda were cut down in front of her because she was already flashing between opponents, throwing herself into full body gyrations to strike two, three, four at a time. Her world tunneled then expanded into a calm hyperawareness. Her crazed maneuvers took their toll and soon she began to tire out, her movements slowing fractionally. As she pulled Suzumebachi from an arrancar's braincasing, she felt more than saw three others moving up in behind her. Calmly, she made her peace. It was then that the universe erupted.

An immense, all encompassing wave of pressure ripped through the air, sending her and her opponents tumbling in all directions. When she looked up again, the sky had become so dark she could barely see her hand in front of her face. A piercing howl swept through the air and windows everywhere shattered in a massive, glinting explosion as a single lightning bolt ripped the black sky apart. The thunder that followed was so powerful that she was immediately deafened and the chaos reduced to a constant ringing and a horrendous spiritual "scream" that tore through her soul. When Soi Fong awakened in a threadbare hospital bed the next day with her new lieutenant hovering over her, she learned the details: the arrancar had broken through, Ukitake had launched a desperate counterattack and Soi Fong had saved the remaining shinigami and vaizards by herding them to a nearby portal Urahara had opened. Soi Fong had no choice, but to believe her. All she could remember was Suzumebachi's instinctual drive to seek shelter in the eye of the storm.

_Note: Jyuushiro's little speech is ripped almost word for word from C.S. Lewis._


	4. He was my Guide

Ukitake Jyuushiro was the third person that Rukia loved and the only of one those first three to say those words to her outright. He did this on her wedding day, when he looked on from the father's place in the aisle with a joyful smile and pride in his eyes.

* * *

As her teacher, Jyuushiro often drove Rukia to hysterics because he never let her drop a task she found difficult. He also had the equally terrifying and exasperating habit of trusting her with assignments when she had absolutely no idea if she could succeed. Jyuushiro kept her complaints few by making sure she always had a supply of Chappy the Rabbit chocolates.

* * *

For many years after her adoption into the Kuchiki family, Rukia was defensive of her past in the Rukonagi. Jyuushiro, always sensitive to the feelings of his subordinates and, let's face it, somewhat starved for conversation material he hadn't heard a million times already, began asking her about her time in the most vicious district of the afterlife that formed such a crucial part of her history. Slowly, but surely he would pry little facts from her: the different smells around the Eight Corners, names of rival gangs, how cold it could be at night and the pauper's cemetery where sunflowers bloomed like nowhere else. Jyuushiro hung on every word with a scholar's intensity, hiding his pity and compassion at her trials and tribulations, her abuses and rape. He laughed at her and Renji's escapades, forgave her trespasses, and called her a gangsta to her face. It was not too many years before his young subordinate would openly counsel him from the eyes of a former street rat and used her abilities at improvisation to help the division. And when Jyuushiro later learned from an almost-but-not-quite-smiling Byakuya that Rukia had told the Kuchiki elders to take their pride and shove it up their carefully moisturized asses for challenging her charity efforts, Jyuushiro laughed and merely said that her inner gangsta was slipping out.

* * *

The death of Shiba Kaien devastated Rukia. It stripped her of a valued companion, a hero and a beloved brother when she was isolated from any other companionship. However, even as she lost her lieutenant, Rukia gained her captain. Driven by a shared sense of loss and guilt, Jyuushiro was no longer content to be the unseen guardian and observer that Byakuya had requested. In time, he became one of her closest confidants, advisors and, eventually, a friend. He even took to patting her on the head as Kaien had been so fond of, knowing full well she could never directly gainsay her captain.

* * *

Her proudest moment in life was when Jyuushiro handed her the armband of a vice-captain and she knew she'd earned it. What should have been the proudest moment of her life was ruined when she knew the white haori she held in clenched fists meant that he had agreed to die.

* * *

Ever since she'd first joined the 13th, Rukia had had a fascination with Jyuushiro's hair. The former street rat turned military officer often wondered how his snowy tresses might feel under her fingers or how she would twist and comb it like she'd fantasized a child with a real home might do. When, late one night, Jyuushiro's baffled stare told her that she'd voiced her thoughts aloud, Rukia thought she'd have a heart attack. When Jyuushiro arrived the next morning with his hair done up in a French braid with a big purple bow, Sentaro _did_ have a heart attack. Fortunately, Jyuushiro's frequent hospitalizations ensured that 4th's emergency response team arrived quickly and Sentaro was soon revived. Unfortunately, there was no such help available for Unohana.

* * *

Kaien's death taught Rukia focus, determination and to always, always guard those you love. Jyuushiro's death at the hands of a third string arrancar who was lucky enough to take advantage of his exhaustion and illness taught her hate. This was the second time Aizen had indirectly robbed her of one her precious people.

* * *

During Rukia's first years at the 13th, her captain was the invisible, but ever-present standard that she strove to measure up to. According to her new comrades, there was no one kinder, wiser or stronger than _their_ (my) captain. He was perfect in every way. With Kaien's death she learned that he was far from perfect, but in finally seeing a bit of the truth, her respect grew all the more because it was in his weakness that he reached to help her and others.

* * *

Rukia was surprised when it was Chad, hulking, silent Sado Yatsura with whom she'd exchanged all of twenty words and who'd never seen Ukitake Jyuushiro in his life, that Chad, who helped her pass beyond the rage and the grief of seeing her captain (he'd always be her captain) so uncaringly snuffed out. Rukia was sitting in 4th's waiting room, covered in injuries she'd received having gone on six consecutive missions and slaughtering at least forty arrancar, when Chad appeared out of the triage and stopped in the middle room, blatantly staring at Rukia.

"I don't think he died so you could live like this, even in war."

Neither said anything, but as the gentle monster slipped out the door for another day of blood and death, Rukia tore the only piece of cloth from her robes that hadn't been stained with blood and began wiping the blood off of her face.

* * *

When Rukia's extremely strong-willed and obstinate daughter refused to take her medicine, she would occasionally tell stories about the poor Mr. Shiro. "You see, he wouldn't take his medicine either so he had to go to the evil Lady Dr.'s office where they'd stick him full of needles."

"How big?" her daughter would ask with eyes wider than saucers and mouth dangling open.

"This big," Rukia would spread her arms out as far she could, even the fingertips. "They'd stick him and even though he was a mighty warrior, he'd still _scream_ like a little baby."

Needless to say, the medicine was taken.


	5. He was my Father

Ukitake Jyuushiro had known Byakuya since his birth. Children were rare in noble families and the birth of a new heir, especially in the Kuchiki, was a momentous occasion. Jyuushiro was one of many in a long line of official visitors who attended the ceremony where Byakuya's father formally presented the infant; his sole distinction being that he was the only one, father included, who knew how to change Byakuya's diaper when he shat himself. After all, you don't raise five brothers and two sisters without learning a thing or two.

* * *

The next time Byakuya encountered Jyuushiro, it was as the man's unwilling student. His father had determined that the boy was too advanced for his current kendo instructors. Byakuya wanted to train with his father, but was stuck with the Jyuushiro instead. Bitterly upset at receiving what he perceived as inferior instruction, Byakuya promptly informed the sickly captain that there was no way Jyuushiro's sword could ever match the newly-manifested Senbonzakura and that he should go home before he hurt himself. Jyuushiro smiled and replied that it was a good thing he had two swords.

* * *

As a young boy struggling to learn shunpo under the tyrannical auspices of Yoruichi, Byakuya sometimes vented his frustrations at his constant humiliations by stealing peaches from the Ukitake garden. He did this less for the peaches than for being able to say he'd outran the legendary captain as Jyuushiro would emerge from his house, huffing and puffing, to chase the young prodigy. When Captain Ukitake later met the newlywed and very distressed Kuchiki Hisana at a tea party, she confided to him she felt horrible because she had no way of getting Byakuya to take care himself. She was too meek to make him go to bed when he was overtired, go to 4th for his wounds or restrain his temper when the family insulted her. Jyuushiro gently squeezed Hisana's hand and told her that he was confident she would find a way, "but if all else fails, make him think he's winning by doing what you want him to do." Then he asked her if she wanted a peach.

* * *

When Hisana died, Jyuushiro was the only person to hug Byakuya. It wasn't until a half-century later when he reconciled with his adopted sister that Byakuya changed this.

* * *

As a young teen, Byakuya had great difficulty in finding additional information about the "weird feelings" he got around girls and why he might suddenly wake up one day decide they looked better naked than they did with clothes on. Upon finding both his father and the servants mysteriously absent, he turned to his kendo instructor. Jyuushiro magically turned an even lighter shade of pale, but nevertheless invited the young lord to sit down as he casually poured himself some hard tea he kept hidden from Shunsui's greedy lips.

It was a very informative day for Byakuya.

Perhaps a little too informative.

* * *

Once Byakuya finally realized the depth of his feelings for Hisana, he remained in frozen inaction: too bewildered by the depth and passion of his feelings, too shaken from the idea of going against the foundations of his life and the orderly goals that had been laid out for him since birth. With Hisana too accepting and timid to fight for the gift fate had dropped into her guilt stricken hands, it was left to Jyuushiro to strong arm his former student into marriage. Byakuya's almost silent, _"You were right," _upon receiving his bride from Jyuushiro's arm was the sincerest expression of gratitude anyone had given the old captain.

* * *

Following Hisana's death, several family members convinced the newly widowed Byakuya that Jyuushiro's frequent visits to his late wife were a means of spreading his illness to her. Despite his turmoil, Byakuya entered the 13th division by stealth at night and impaled Jyuushiro through his own sleeping mat, pinning him to the ground. Old ties die hard, however, and Byakuya was desperate to hear his former teacher declare himself guilty with his own lips: Byakuya missed the soul chain. Still alive, but dying by the second, Jyuushiro desperately explained the truth he'd only recently discovered: the Kuchiki had betrayed him. His brother and those allied with him were afraid Hisana would have a child. Though Byakuya's legendary speed saved Jyuushiro's life, Byakuya's was now destroyed. The one who had been his whole world slain and his hands stained with innocent blood, Byakuya vowed to slaughter his clan before killing himself. The massacre was averted when Jyuushiro used Byakuya's guilt and the oath he swore on his father's deathbed to restrain him. The two did not speak again as anything more than colleges for decades afterwards. Each considered this time among their deepest failures: for Byakuya, it was the night he utterly destroyed his honor; for Jyuushiro, it was his hesitance that killed Byakuya's smile.

* * *

After an ill Jyuushiro angrily confronted Byakuya over his support of Rukia's execution, Byakuya knew that his old teacher would attempt to save his adopted sister. As Sebonzakura shattered in his hands amidst the ashes of the sogoukyu, Byakuya decided that he was content.

* * *

Byakuya's love of burying everything he ate in wasabi was well known by Jyuushiro. The senior captain often tried to see if he could find a dish that was too spicy for the Kuchiki nobleman, but each attempt was a spectacular failure. When even Kukaku failed to produce something sufficiently corrosive enough to defeat Byakuya's iron palate, Jyuushiro gave up all hope of ever conquering his former student…that is, until he met Sado Yasutora and discovered that the fire of chili peppers operates on a completely different principle than wasabi. When a desperate Byakuya was forced into using Renji's beer bong because of an artfully placed insanity pepper, Jyuushiro had his camera ready.

* * *

The high wall that had been between Byakuya and Jyuushiro finally collapsed when Byakuya returned from Hueco Mundo to find Jyuushiro standing alone, gaunt and ragged, bearing a request: will you be vice-captain? Byakuya knew then question that really lay before him: did he decline and fight on alone, uncaring and invulnerable to all pain, or did he again return to his old mentor; to watch as he inevitably drove himself to death (so much like Hisana) and was slain, leaving Byakuya with the crushing responsibility of Captain-General in a losing war? In the end, there was really only one choice.

_Fini_


End file.
